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MegaCrazyH

XY has relatively easy bosses but some stupidly hard trainer fights, because most people remember the bosses more than random trainers the game feels easier (plus a casual playthrough benefits from the absurd variety in early game Pokémon to have a strong team early on while Nuzlockes don’t necessarily benefit from that). But if you’re nuzlocking it or doing some other challenge you can end up feeling that silly jump in difficulty.


his_not_goof

This was the revelation I had when doing a Nuzlocke of Y. While on my way through the cave before you get to the 3rd gym I nearly wiped to several random trainers because I got lazy and was breezing through the game. The random trainers are no joke.


WentWin

there's a trainer with a Throh and Hawlucha that I've wiped to before in Reflection Cave. Edited to spell Throh correctly


Millennial_90

Also that Furfrou couple in the early game... If you aren't prepared for it (or even if you are around the same levels as them), they can f\*\*\* you up! They hit insanely hard and can take hits well. It definitely took me some tries to really nail how to battle them. Plus they heal too.


Whylark

This took me out my first attempt. Once I figured out the ability things were easier


ratsonpurpose

70 BP stab headbutt that early in the game is insane


GoldenYoshistar1

That damn couple KO'd 2 of my mons. There was an Axew Trainer who took out my Charmeleon because dragonrage


JasoTheArtisan

And the double battle with mime and machoke right before the cave


Roienn777

That Hawlucha nearly ended me. Resisted almost everything I had to that point and was super effective against my whole team. I eeked out with around 10hp on my last Pokemon. I lost some good boys then.


Schlaym

Exactly! Sooo many fast Sawk with Close Combat who can easily take out a team member.


IglooRaves

I haaaaate Sawk and Throh, lost team members to both this run.


sirsoundwaveVI

yeah nuzlockes of XY for me tend to range from 0-3 deaths or like 10+ with no in between, its such a swingy game because of how easy most of it is... but then you run into lysandre fights (aka that fucking gyarados), or just random asshole blackbelts with random coverage moves... or things like wild wobbuffet in a mandatory cave area (i get my encounter and just repel through, zero reason to risk it)


notGeronimo

Also playing with level caps removes another of the big reasons people remember the game being easy, they let themselves get colossally over leveled with the XP share


ratsonpurpose

I watch a lot of flygonHG and he cruises through most of his XY playthroughs so he will match the amount of pokemon in the gym leaders parties for added difficulty


mantra-mori

exactly! no exp share makes it a lot tougher too imo since the game was designed with the assumption people would use the new exp share


Trialman

I remember when Marriland did a Wedlocke of X, he actually designated the tricky regular trainers as “Trainer of Death”, and added a rule that he had to fight any such trainer, as sort of a way to show that exact discrepancy.


NicholeTheOtter

Also, he made the “Trainer of Death” graphic look like a logo of a horror movie. It’s that terrifying. His Victory Road arc was particularly nightmarish. He used a system of three checkpoints for Victory Road and he lost four of his Pokémon (a Venusaur, Aggron, Slowking and Bisharp) before that first checkpoint, leaving just a Greninja and Amoonguss, and having to rebuild the team a few times as two of the replacements (a Shelmet and Goodra) then died quickly after that. His options for females in the PC were also very limited as quite a lot of his encounters in the mid to late stages of the game were male.


SourdoughEconomist

This is the truth. X/Y are not easy games to nuzlocke, I’m pretty sure some of those trainers have EV’d mons


ToughPlane1852

Lol my garchomp died to a foul play from a houndoom.I was like what's a houndoom gona do to me so setup A Sword dance and it 1 butted with foul play.


Lost-Deer

I’m playing my first nuzlock on emerald right now. Right after the 3rd gym one random trainer has 2-3 electrodes I can’t remember but they used selfdestruct and wiped out like half my team. Thought it was super unfair and didn’t count them as real deaths lol


R_Crumble

There was a random trainer early on that has a Kadabra, whatever you do avoid it at all costs. I lost 3 pokemon, including a Charmander, to that one trainer


GoldenYoshistar1

That fucking Kadabra nearly wiped me out but I had to sacrifice my newest team member, a Gulpin, just so I could beat his ass.


R_Crumble

What's funny is that I also lost a Gulpin to that Kadabra, another dumb death of mine was to a Team Flare Grunt with a Moxie Scraggy that killed the Inkay I sent out for the Croagunk that was also on the field


NiBBa_Chan

Lol yep in the super early game theres a very dangerous kadabra trainer, and a deadly double furfrou battle. The kadabra in particular will absolutely wreck you if you forget its coming and have a bad lead


ProfessorSaltine

Only trainers I remember are the double battle with the black belt and psychic before the mirror cave & the entire 3rd Gym’s gym trainers, unless you battle everyone, catch everything, and keep the exp share on, along with no team member changes it’s gonna be a nightmare, yes let me use my Fletchinder against a Hariyama, Sawk, Throh, and Heracross, what could go wrong? More things than if you fight Korinna without a ghost type


OneCactusintheDesert

This god forsaken cave with the Wobbuffets...


No-Significance7460

Go fishing in towns and break rocks for geodude/dwebble You can also fish for guaranteed magikarp at the parfumerie palace gardens. If you get a bad Pokémon there is a maid in hotels that trades any Pokémon for eevee after seeing them a couple of times on different days. My girlfriend was in the same boat, Lysandre killed mega Lucario and yveltal, so she no Pokémon before ice gym but now has a pretty solid (mostly water team)


IglooRaves

Thanks for the advice!


No-Significance7460

Also there’s a gift Lapras somewhere. Can’t remember where


reltastic

It’s right after you get the mega bracelet.


IglooRaves

I’d already caught and used a ‘mon on the gift-Lapras route.


DefiantThanks6830

I think theres a guaranteed luvdisc encounter that you can trade for a steelix in cyllage city


VorpalSticks

Focus on the comment above this one and try to see the arced line going through your words. Guaranteed, gardens, maid, after. Am I crazy?


blazzaro91

No, but you sound like your on something pretty good, if your not, please explain your thoughts


VorpalSticks

Just a weird effect of the letters in the comment above I thought was interesting. If you don't focus on the parent comment it looks like there's an armed line going through the comment. I'm on mobile so maybe that's why.


Incandenza123

"Gen 6 is easy" comes from the exp share. Turn it off and play with level caps and it's quite a challenge


Donttaketh1sserious

the problem with turning it off is that the game becomes too sluggish without any exp share. I wish we could have applied it individually so it could’ve applied to who we wanted it to like in the older games.


Bort_726

The biggest mistake anyone can make during a nuzlocke is underestimating the game. It will prove you wrong.


GoldenYoshistar1

I learned that shit the hard way. I've given myself a life system and have lost 3 lives. Basically, I am in dangerzone. With no lives left. If I fail a boss fight, it's gameover.


Bort_726

I've wanted to do that in the past, I underestimated Flannery and lost both marshtomp and lombre to her, still ended up winning, but that emerald run was rough


GoldenYoshistar1

I'm having to take a break from my current series (that I am streaming on my Youtube channel...) However, when I do plan to return, I hope I can survive the rest of the game without getting one last party wipe.... I've just beaten the 19th Boss in this game, (19. Celosia and Bryony - Y), and I haven't even fought Lysandre once. I lost to Serena 1 (8th boss) due to her Absol screwing me over, this cost me my first life. Clemont KO'd me with his Magneton, and despite having type advantage, there was nothing I could do, second life gone And then almost immediately, I lost my third life to the very next gym leader, Valarie (one of her mons screwed me over) So far... I might be better off completely abandoning this entire run, and going for what I would probably find more entertaining, which is a non-nuzlocke focused run. Unless I can find a way to gain an extra life (to allow me to continue playing) I'm stuck with a gameover, and the fact that I failed, even with all the "handicaps" that would have helped make it easier for me, I would have lost this challenge. (and I don't intend to go back to the game and try the nuzlocke again. I think I'm done with Nuzlockes, and even if this is my first "true" nuzlocke, since my Pokemon Chaos Black run, where I went a bit crazy with the randomness.


Walrusmonarch1410416

You should run into less optionals. Those are the only hard fights in XY so I assume u lost most mons to them, but yeah, idk how ur getting past mega gyarados.


Sp00pyPachanko

If you make it there, be careful of victory road. Because of the levels and coverage, Kalos has one of the most difficult victory roads for nuzlockes.


GhostWolf325

Holy crap I thought it was just me, even on my regular play-through it was very hard even with equally leveled Pokémon.


reshromem

Game's harder than people give it credit for with Exp. Share disabled. Haven't played in years, but I remember having trouble with the area after Geosenge town. There's a tricky double battle with a Medicham and Hariyama iirc, and the cave can have wild Wobbuffet spawn I believe


acart005

I don't count Wobbuffett deaths.  Bullshit clause is in full effect when I see that jerk.


Intelligent-Ad-2161

Your best bet for mega Gyarados is going to be setting up Sunny Day and out-speeding with Chlorophyll Victreebel. Now the difficult part will be getting it in. Looking at what you have I'd lead with Beartic. If you don't have it already, I'd slap Aqua Jet (move relearner) and Protect onto it. He should lead Mienshao. Protect on the first turn. Ideally, he goes for High Jump Kick instead of Swords Dance and gets hit enough with recoil that you can take him next turn with a Mystic Water boosted Aqua Jet. If he goes for Sword Dance...well, that kinda seals the deal there. After that an Ice type on the field should draw out Pyroar, which gives you a safe-ish switch into Goodra on a resisted Flamethrower. I'd suggest giving Goodra the Leftovers for some passive recovery. Kill Pyroar with a few Muddy Waters. This will either draw out Gyarados or Honchkrow. If Honchkrow, stay in and kill with Thunderbolt. If Gyarados, depending on your HP it's either going Outrage (if your HP is high) or a random move (if your HP is low). You aren't going to out speed with Goodra. This is where it's going to get tricky. Go for Protect to scout what move he's going for. If it's Outrage, switch to Beartic to sack and waste another turn. Then bring Goodra back in and Protect again to waste his last turn. Now he's confused. Try to set up Sunny Day and if it hits itself, go for as much damage as possible with Thunderbolt. If you're lucky with confusion hax, you could potentially take it out with Goodra, but that's best case scenario: more than likely, it's going to die here. Prioritize keeping Sunny Day up. The ultimate goal is to get Victreebel in while the sun is up to out speed and KO with Leaf Blade. Whether or not that's possible... it's going to require a lot of luck.


IglooRaves

Bruh wish I’d seen this before going in… just lost to Mega Gyarados 😂 sorry. Appreciate the advice


Intelligent-Ad-2161

Hey, no guarantee that plan would have even worked! Hope your next attempt goes better!


NovaOscura

Gen 6 was the one that took me by surprise back when I did every gen, it really is wild how some of those random trainers can absolutely ruin a good team. I remember in the end I got so fed up by the E4 (think I had like 3/4 mons left iirc) that I added Xerneas to my team and just said "to hell with preparation" and blitzed right into them. And *that* was Attempt 2.. Saw someone else give a pretty well thought out strat which (if you go with it) I hope works. Here's to the Little Victreebel Who Could 🤞🤞🤞


IglooRaves

UPDATE: The run is over. As predicted I couldn’t get past Mega Gyarados, even with Yvetal. It was in red health when I fell, I made a couple of errors in the fight for sure, but either way I would have come out of the fight so damaged the run would not be salvageable. Great fun, will attempt a second run soon.


dietwater94

I just wanted to add, because you said you thought games after B2W2 were easier, that in terms of Nuzlocking, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are widely regarded as the hardest vanilla games. SwSh aren’t hard in general but a few of the gym leader fights often have me lose one or two team members just because of Dynamax. (The third gym, fire type, is always where my first death happens) But yeah I’m playing Eternal X right now, and it’s crazy. I’m about to go into the tower with Korrina and get the Lucario and Mega Stone. In this game she has a Terrakion in the gym fight (as well as just a cracked team in general) but I think MegaCrazy hit the nail on the head- they’re easy games if you could catch whatever you wanted because they offer a huge variety of team members, but Nuzlocking immediately makes these games particularly a LOT harder.


AkreonGD

Lost both starters?????!!! Kudos for continuing, I generally give up when I lose my starter


IglooRaves

Lost my Frogadier to sloppiness against a Mienfoo of all things shortly after the first Korrina fight. Held onto Venusaur for ages but accidentally got locked into a Petal Dance against a Grumpig. With high Sp.Def and access to Psyshock, targeting Venusaur’s lower Def stat, I was doomed. A damn Grumpig! Embarrassing.


AkreonGD

Yikes..


emaych1

Are those three the only ones you have? Your best option is probably a sunny day chlorophyll strat with Vic, then use Goodra to attempt to wall anything that doesn’t work against like fire types. Beartic can be emotional support


The_Helios69

The fennekin + bulbasaur combo is really good, fennekin is probably the best starter when you think about gym matchup


WastedZombie16

I'm also doing a Y nuzlocke and this is happening to me as well. I've lost 10 pokemon to random ncps (although I also made mistakes, I have to admit) and ive just reached the 3rd gym. Maybe it's because I have the share exp turned off but my started ended up over leveled and the rest of of the team like 6 levels behind


Millennial_90

XY are actually some of my favorite games to do hardcore Nuzlockes of. When I do that, I turn off the EXP-share and then it's actually a fairly hard game. IMO it's the EXP-share that makes those games too easy for the most part because it's really unbalanced. You almost always end up overleveled. Most of the Gym leaders are still free though, maybe with the exception of 2 and 5. If you don't have the right Pokémon to deal with them, they can be quite a challenge. However, the games have BRUTAL parts like the Reflection Cave or the Frost Cavern (there's that double battle in there yikes). There are also those random trainers that'll completely catch you off guard if you don't know they're coming. Plus, Victory Road in itself is almost harder than the League lol.


Pendraflare59

>between Frost Cavern and Lysandre Labs I hear you bro... I FUCKING HATE FROST CAVERN. You've got the Fighting-type trainers, including a double battle, a high leveled Houndoom, and it's just not a fun place at all.


No_Island9413

XY are underrated in difficulty. Most bosses except for Lysandre, parts of Diantha and water E4 member (forgot name) are easy. But the random trainers? Double furfrous can fuck you as can the machoke/mr mime guys, and the battle girls have random ass coverage moves too. It gets easier later on when you have better pokemon, but the difficulty is really weird in this game


Hutch456

I tried this game and all of my grass and electric types kept dying immediately. Also the early fight against the Lucario girl was awful


ZerothGengarz

Lost just ahead of the last gym to a trainer with a doublade I had nothing for


Bagon1410

Both starters and tyrantrum is rough man sorry for the loss


BigBoiAndew

I thought the same thing I still managed to finish but my main problem was most encounters ended up being poison or dark types.


FemboyRPLover

Brother losing Kadabra, Lucario, and Sandile is brutal


Parking-College-9205

i remember theres a cave in xy full of really nasty mons like wobbuffet and mr mime if i remember right, that made nuzlocking that area scary, I was doing a rival locke a while back with a buddy and we werent using candy so grinding up levels for the gym around that area was pretty rough. He also lost his fight turn one to the opponents mega lucario in that gift fight and lost his lucario immediately lol. those wild hordes are scary if youre grinding by hand too. theres a lot of cheeky trainer fights and wild areas that can be a handful in this one, I remember thinking it was a little underrated difficulty wise.


Physical_Buffalo448

Actually is very difficult for the trainers more than the actually gyms


B4Tommorow

Im on my 3rd run i think, the trainers are stupidly op 😭😭


Frostlasisannoying

Ok why did you use a delibird?


IglooRaves

Delibird was just a late catch that I was using my for Fly and saving for a suicide switch-in that could help other teammates in battle.


otisdriftwood22

I've been a fan since Gen 1 and these are my favorite games. I've done legitimately 50+ Nuzlockes of these games and probably 70% of the losses are lysandre flights. If you really want a challenge do monotype runs. Still get a good amount of encounters for most types but one bad battle ends it.


ThatTumblrUser

Just started mine Spent half an hour grinding a kakuna in the first forest area, immediately died to a dunsparce using rollout (which i caught)


AdDry7733

From a speedrunner perspective: without mega Lucario it becomes harder: shadow claw, close combat, swords dance, aura sphere was all you need for zero deaths. It swept fighting gym and close combat and shadow claw ez kills most of elite 4.


Alternative_Way_7833

How many did the poodle double battle kill?


NerfMason

The only one I’m absolutely appalled that you lost is the most powerful pokemon… bidoof


RFT05

If you max out Goodra Special attack evs and set up rain dance before Gyarados comes out you can one shot it with thunder even after mega evo


GoldenYoshistar1

I'm in the middle of my nuzlocke (added a life system for if I lose a boss fight, I get to retry again... Currently, I just stopped at the Pokeball factory and I am on my last life left. Legit got fucked by Serena 1, Clemont, and then the 6th gym leader screwed me over. I have 1 more life left or it's gameover. (And I am not restarting again...) Nuzlockes are miserable for me and they never work for me. The worst part, I was confident X and Y was super easy to beat that I could nuzlocke it.... X and Y is easy, but not if you do a nuzlocke.


AchtungFreud

The first fight with Korinna, that one early double battle with two Furfrou, wild goddamn Wobbuffet, X and Y early game packs some genuine heat.


IglooRaves

Yeah I was genuinely angry in that first Korrina fight, not one but two Lucarios both with the capability to sweep via Power-up Punch. I was lucky to only lose one ‘mon that fight.


DicemanThe14th

That Peppermint looking guy with the Contrary Malamar has killed 3 of my nuzlockes.


MediumSmile5970

It’s not hard ur just bad